Asparagus Fern - Foxtail

There are so many varieties of Asparagus Ferns. All are sturdy plants that can add a touch of bright green to a landscaped garden or can be grown in pots - especially hanging pots - to liven up a sparse patio or balcony. They grow in full sunlight or partial shade. Most have globular root nodes that store water - and therefore they can survive a couple of days without watering.

Propagation is easy with root nodes separated from the mother plant. Some varieties also have tiny flowers that produce bright red berries with seeds which can then be used for propagation. The Foxtail Asparagus Fern shown here has a much denser but shorter leaf structure compared to the common variety and is more attractive.

Watch out for aphids and ant attacks - they tend to concentrate near the roots and therefore avoid detection until too late.

Water Lettuce

Water Lettuce, unlike other aquatics, can be grown in small containers as well as large. With petal shaped leaves that grow in a flower like arrangement, these plants look pretty floating in water. They grow very fast and can easily multiply. Just one of these 'flowers' put in a container can turn into 4-5 in a week.  It took me quite some time to understand what makes them grow - after several months of false starts where they withered and died, it finally dawned that they needed soil with a good amount of organic content within reach of their tiny hair-like roots. I had earlier put them in containers where the water level was way too high for the roots to reach the soil beneath and they did not like that.

The best way to grow them is to put them in shallow but wide containers that can hold water upto 3-4 inches above the soil level. Or if you really need to use a deep container raise the soil level so that the water depth is maintained low.

Old stoneware pots that are chipped and broken provide a quaint setting for growing Water Lettuce - you could pop them in nooks and corners or near the gate to add a touch of charm to your garden. Or if you could get your hands on old granite containers that were used for feeding cattle in villages, that would look great too. Most of the antique shops lining the East Coast Road have quite a variety of these.

Water Lettuce is resistant to most insects - except for an odd caterpiller that has lost its way. However be sure to keep them where they get direct sunlight at least for 3-4 hours a day.

The Wax Rose

Wax Roses as plants are not very desirable candidates in the garden. Equipped with very long and extremely sharp thorns organised in clumps around its stem, they can really draw blood if you get too close to them without exercising due caution. They have a milky white sap that oozes out whenever the stems are bruised or cut. But when they bloom - which they do with utmost generosity - you can't help being drawn to the beauty of the flowers. Their waxy appearance maybe why they are called Wax Rose.

   

I have two types in the garden - both sourced from the same nursery - one with bright pink flowers and another with almost fluorescent orange flowers. Though you can make out that both belong to the same family, the pink one has glossy non-serrated leaves and flowers in huge bunches of 20-30 flowers whereas the orange variety has slightly serrated leaves of a lighter green with a more sedate flowering pattern - hardly 3-4 flowers in a bunch.

Propagation is easy and through cuttings - though the orange variety produces very large seed pods.

Very tolerant to dry conditions - can go without watering for 2-3 days. Also resistant to insects. In short, a non-fussy plant with beautiful flowers.

Morning Glory

Morning Glories are twining climbers that can add a lot of color to your garden. With so many hybrids and shades available it is difficult to choose which one to plant. It grows profusely, flowers generously and is very hard to control once let loose. In fact certain hybrids will start blooming within a week - with hardly 4-6 leaves to show.

The one shown here is a particularly wild grower. I half-heartedly planted a couple of seeds near the compound wall expecting results maybe after a month - and was pleasantly surprised to see the extremely bright flowers within the second week.

It would have been spectacular if the flowers remained open through the day. Unfortunately they open at sunrise and close within a couple of hours. But those couple of hours are really a fireworks display.

Most flowers generate seeds which can then be used for propagation.

The plants are prone to severe aphid attacks. They seem to draw them like magnets. A daily checking is required to ensure that the aphid-army does not take over the entire plant.

The Glow Vine

Hardy climbers with a woody stem and beautiful, oval, dark green leaves that are papery but thick, these vines are relatively slow growers. Flowering is seasonal in Chennai – Dec to Feb – but well worth the wait. The flowers are trumpet shaped and are a delicate violet in color with a creamy throat. There is spurt of growth just before the flowering starts and the flowers appear in bunches that tend to bloom in progression. Propagation is by cuttings and the plant is not fussy and can tolerate short gaps without watering. I have had occasional aphid attacks on new emerging leaf nodes – but the plant is not a favorite with caterpillars.

Since they do not grow profusely and do not smother nearby plants, they can be made to climb onto other shrubs that are slow growers too. They flower even when they have only 3-4 hours of direct sunlight a day.